Dandy Nicholls is very much a trainer to be interested in when it comes to following sprint horse racing. He is known as the “king of sprinters” and in his stable there are very few horses that run more than a mile. 2009 has done nothing to damage his reputation from a kicking standpoint, although his position as the top speed coach is under serious threat from Richard Fahey. His biggest winner of the year was Regal Parade, who won the Group 1 Betfred Sprint Cup at Hayydock, but unlike Fahey, he failed to post the best sprint handicaps, which will no doubt have caused some frustration.
So far this year Dandy Nicholls has had 44 sprint winners recorded by me and these have been achieved by 27 different horses. If you remove Blue Tomato’s five wins (four on claimers/sellers), you can see that Dandy’s repeat wins are a bit down. However, it does mean that many of the horses are still potentially at a disadvantage, and if the trainer can find the right opportunity, they are capable of winning again. Nicholls seems very adept at winning the biggest prizes available with the talent he has, so there will be some unsuccessful forays into racing beyond his horse’s abilities.
Nicholls has had a typical 2009 with a slow start to the year (he prefers turf!), things started to take off from mid-March, peaking in mid-summer and then tapering off slightly as winter approached. fall. The purple patches in the stable are worth looking for. She had two specials this year; 4 winners between March 20-24 and then a staggering 10 winners between July 11-22.
As for the jockeys, his son Adrián is the most interesting with 22 winners so far this year. He continues to improve and is a particularly strong jockey for those horses who like to try everything. Adrian has the skillful assistance of Francis Norton (5 wins) and Silvestre De Sousa (3 wins).
Nicholls has had some southern winners as he likes to target all decent sprint handicaps, but it has to be said that he is historically the most dangerous winning races on the northern circuit. 2009 has been typical and his most profitable courses have again been Beverley (5 wins), Hamilton (4 wins), York (3 wins), Catterick (3 wins) and Musselburgh (2 wins).
Many of the stable’s handicapers have run respectably but without success in the big handicap races this fall. As a result, many of them have dropped the handicap a few kilos. If they don’t manage to win again before the 2009 turf season ends, we can be sure that they will start the 2010 campaign in the same vein as this year. A very stable sprint to follow!